Tag: ACLU

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/justice_department_quietly_inv.html January 20, 2011: NEWARK — The U.S. Department of Justice is actively investigating the American Civil Liberties Union’s call …Read the Rest

Lawrence Hamm, chairman of POP, said the main reason for the march and demonstration was to bring attention to the issue of police brutality and to support a petition by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking a federal investigation of the Newark Police Department. The ACLU petition, filed in September, claims the police department routinely violates residents’ civil rights through excessive force and false arrests.

On July 13, 1999-thirty years after an incident of police brutality helped spark the Newark riots-a broad coalition of organizations called upon Governor Whitman to make the State Police accountable to independent bodies, not just the Attorney General’s office. The organizations included the ACLU-NJ, Black Ministers Council, NJ Coalition Against Police Brutality, NJ Lesbian and Gay Coalition, and People’s Organization for Progress.

The NJ NAACP has since joined the call for real reform, and other organizations that want to end bigotry and bad policing are encouraged to contact the ACLU-NJ.

“A civilian complaint review board and an outside auditor will ensure that the State fulfills its promise of a new, improved State Police force,” said Rev. Dwight Gill of the Black Ministers Council. “Without those mechanisms, the public will continue—with good reason—to doubt the integrity of the State Police.”